Connie's Corner

Now what will I watch?

My television watching has been reduced to two hours on Sunday evening and now that is finished. Downton Abby had its last episode last night. Everything was wrapped up satisfactorily except for Mr. Bates (the valet). He remains in prison for the murder of his first wife. Julian Fellowes wrote a good one. But now what am I going to watch? TV sucks. So glad for the library.

Since tax packages are no longer mailed to us peons, I finally got around to ordering my own. They came in record time, even before I want to work on them. I guess the government can be efficent sometimes...when it is in their interest.

Jim's potassium continues to run over the upper limit but his doc has come up with a pretty good plan. She has given him a prescription for the awful stuff he had to take in the hospital to bring it down (K-exalate), and after labs she has him take a dose if it is a little high...seems to be working. And he is doing better in the mornings since we stopped a couple of his other medications. They were making his blood pressure too low and that was the reason he was so weak (dizzy) first thing on arising. Now he is getting into his wheelchair right away and able to eat his breakfast by himself. That really means a lot to me. And the K-exalate is keeping him from the emergency room.

We are trying to eliminate as much potassium as possible from his diet. Cow's milk has a lot of it so I looked for alternatives and came up with rice milk. I bought the vanilla kind and he says he cannot tell the difference. I'm eager to see how much it affects his next labs. Two things he loves he must absolutely avoid...chocolate and nuts. They are both HIGH potassium foods plus bad for diabetics (chocolate) and ostomates (nuts)...double whammies. Who would have thought chocolate was high in potassium...not me.

High potassium leads to muscle weakness with the most important muscle being the heart. His chronic kidney disease is the culprit. They just cannot get rid of any excess potassium. I am so grateful his new doctor is taking a special interest. We have a renal consult on March 5th.

until next time....c